


Candlelight

by Strawberrybats



Series: Gratuitous Fantasy AU [1]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Gen, also im appreciating me some rarepairs, at some point in time, elirin is pure and good, eventually, i will spill the Sweet Deets on how tf magic works in this au, this au does not make sense but Fear Not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 16:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8539624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strawberrybats/pseuds/Strawberrybats
Summary: "While it was not the sickly, gangly old woman prisoner that she’d conjured in her mind’s eye, it was still a bit of a shock to see another living being in this condition. A while, indeed."
Basically, Eli tries to do a good thing and jailbreak her fellow prisoner, only to realize she may or may not have freed an elder god's youngest sister.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I put this up ages ago on my tumblr, but I'm making a second part (should be done soon!) and it's a bit longer than this is so I figured I'd make a series here for ease of access. I have maybe four or five short stories planned as part of it and im Hype for this au!!!! lots of rarepairs lmao

In the wrong lighting, anything could appear as darkness.

Weakly, a lit candle flickered, wax dripping down at the pace of a snail. Slowly, steadily, it was burning itself out, but a girl blew on it in a futile attempt to make it grow bigger. A bead of wax rolled onto her hand, and she resisted the urge to drop the candle. She cursed quietly instead. “Damn these candles to hell……and this dungeon, too…..”

Eli peered into the corridors, trying to ascertain which one would lead to her escape. It had to be one, right?

….There had to be _some_ way out, right?

She growled after her third dead end in a row. Frustration would not get the better of her. Frustration would not get the better of her. She just had to take a deep breath in, and…..

“You’re…….escaping?” A voice, high and raspy, met her ears.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” Eli fumbled with the candle in her hand before she caught it and froze, registering in the far, far corners of her mind that she, potentially, just fucked up very, very badly. She took a deep breath. “H-how….how long have you been……?” Looking around, she couldn’t see anyone else, but it was so goddamn _dark_ that she might have just been unable to see the speaker in the first place. Eli waved the candle around, trying to locate them.

They spoke again, tentatively, and Eli started to zero in on the speaker, following the sound down one of the corridors. “I don’t know…..what you wanted to ask. How long have I been….watching? Or…..here?”

It was too dark for there to be any watching. Eli had been moving along the halls of the dungeon for a while now, too. The more interesting question, of course, was - “How long have you been here?” She asked, voice low, careful.

“…..I’ve been here……for…a while.”

Finally, Eli saw a form outlined by her candle, and she hurried to come closer, as if it could slip away. Although, that was, she noted, impossible. Like herself, whoever this was, they were a prisoner. They just hadn’t gotten out of the cell yet.

She held the flame close to the bars. Her eyes widened at the sight.

While it was not the sickly, gangly old woman prisoner that she’d conjured in her mind’s eye, it was still a bit of a shock to see another living being in this condition.

A while, indeed.

Green eyes that seemed nearly glazed over blinked into focus at the light, but the girl didn’t flinch away. She drew closer, and Eli saw the less-than stellar state of dress she was in, too. Clothes that had been torn and mended one time too many, seams a little less than perfectly symmetrical, hasty patching from fabric that, really, wasn’t intended to be used as fabric. The girl looked more intensely at the fire, brushing matted orange hair out of her face to do so.

This was, completely and utterly, unacceptable.

“Hold this.” Eli whispered, passing the candle to her through the bars. “I’m going to open the door. I want you to stay quiet and stay with me, okay?”

“….Okay.”

She nodded, and pulled the (thankfully not bent) file from her boot, glad she’d had the foresight oh so many days ago to hide it there in case something went sour on her trip. It had saved her once, and now it would help her again. Eli fiddled with the door’s lock and, despite one near heart attack where she thought she was about to break the lockpick, it eventually cracked open.

Eli let out a sigh of relief. “Come on. We should leave now.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much, I thought, I thought – I thought I was going to be here _forever_ , a-a-all _aloooooone,_ and, _and_ -“ The stranger buried her face in Eli’s shoulder, and, even knowing the candle was being held at her back in a less-than safe way, she couldn’t help but at least give the girl a firm hug back.

“Don’t thank me. Just follow, for now. Try not to make noise, I already messed up once.”

As if just standing on her own two feet had revived her, the girl nodded sharply. Despite the enthusiasm, she wavered a little on her feet when they began moving. Eli took her hand in hers and started once more for some type of exit. It was nice to know the light was following her around now, but then she recalled the pitiful state of the candle and tried to pick up the pace again.

* * *

Seeing light that didn’t originate from a candle was equal parts relieving and depressing. It was daylight, now, and despite the comfort the sunlight offered, it was also a reminder that her escape would be that much harder.

Her companion seemed enthralled by it, though. “It’s been months……” She said in a whisper, like the sun was something she could scare off by talking too loud. Eli felt another pang of sympathy for the girl. This was the kind of person the haildom would take prisoner? Disgusting. For what manner of crimes could they convict someone such as her?

Eli resolved to bring her back to her homeland as a respected guest.

That is, if she could ever get there.

“Hey, could you crouch for a moment? We’ll have plenty of time to see the sun soon, but first, we must look for any guards.” She asked, getting a quick nod from the other girl.

“Of course!” She haste-whispered, doing as she was instructed quickly.

The blonde gave her a light smile and peered over the bush for herself. Guards, in two shifts. There was some more shrubbery that they could hide behind, but if they did not time things expertly, the guard marching around the bush would notice them, and they would be dead. The towers appeared unoccupied, probably because today was sunny enough for them to trust the guards on the ground to do the job just fine. For that, she was grateful. A third guard waited at the center of the yard, looking from one direction to the next. He would be the most difficult, but it was possible.

She decided to wait and watch their patterns a little longer. In the meantime…. “We’ve yet to exchange names, but, as we’ve come upon some time to spare…..I am Eli Ayase. I was traveling to a kingdom on the other side of this, and they arrested me for trespassing….after inviting me across the border themselves.” Her mouth curled into a frown. “But that is enough of myself. Who are you? Do you care to share your story?”

“Rin Hoshizora.” The girl replied in turn. “I’ve lived here my whole life. They only locked me up a little bit ago, though! I don’t really understand what I did, but I guess it was probably….pretty bad, huh?”

Eli scoffed. “No offense, but these people are all just a hair’s width away from barbaric. They are not to be the judge of that. Whatever you did…..I can say with confidence that it did not merit your imprisonment.”

“It didn’t what my what now?”

“You shouldn’t have been jailed. It was wrong of them.” She repeated, flatly.

Rin snickered. “Oh, that’s what I thought you meant, I was just checking! You use a lot of big words, you know that?”

She flushed. “It’s a habit, I suppose.”

“When do you think we can move?” She asked, curiously sticking her head over the shrub. Eli pulled her back out of sight and hurriedly peeked over the top herself.

The guard that moved had just rounded the corner. Eli pulled on Rin’s sleeve and they stayed low while they tried to circle it before being seen by the one on the garden’s walkway. At one point Eli feared she was going to trip, sprawling out into plain sight, but it wasn’t the case, and she moved safely on up until the third guard, which gave her pause. “You go first.” She said, knowing Rin to be the clumsier of the two. If she faltered, Eli could surely help her in time to fix the mistake.

Rin didn’t falter.

Eli did.

While she had been running after her, Eli dropped the candle that had guided them all that way through the dungeon, and froze. If a guard saw it, she –

-would be caught. There was a shout as her hesitation allowed the guard walking the bush to see her, only half crouched and in clear view. The other turned around. Rin watched with wide eyes from the bush.

Eli reluctantly straightened herself out and raised her arms, hoping a surrender would be enough. She’d broken out once, as long as they didn’t find her pick, she could do it again….right?

Her breath caught in her throat, seemingly bunched up around where the pointed tip of a lance rested on her skin.

Maybe her chances were not so good.

She might have comforted herself with something like ‘at least Rin is still safe’, but she wasn’t, because even over her own situation Eli could see Rin getting to her feet and walking towards them with the very clear intention of speaking up about her presence. Eli wanted to tell her to stop, run while she was busy, but that would make her an even more obvious target.

Rin steps forward and grabs a guard by the shoulder, saying something Eli doesn’t understand (is there another native language here? She thought they also spoke Japanese, but maybe - ) and pointing at the ground.

A jet of lava bursts out and swallows him whole like it’s a living creature.

Rin pulls Eli away by the arm before any of the other guards can recover their wits, and before Eli is really conscious of what just happened, they’re standing in the forest, which she had recalled being quite far away, last time she checked – with their hands on their knees, recovering breaths.

“What,” She starts, but Rin holds a hand up to silence her while she also catches her breath. Eli notices for the first time that Rin is barefoot. Her feet are bleeding.

She leaves sticky, black footprints on the stones that had accumulated by the base of the tree.

When Rin looks to have recovered her own breath, she stands, and, with a feather light touch, pokes the spot where the knight had the lance on Eli’s neck, pulling her finger away with a drop of blood on it. She pops it into her mouth, ignoring the disturbed face Eli made. “You make a really good catalyst! Have you done it before or something?”

“What,” Eli repeats, unsure of what she means to ask a question about, so she leaves it at that and hopes Rin will explain everything.

She does, kind of. “I’m Rin. You saved me, so I saved you! My sisters wanna meet you, so I’ll leave the complicated stuff to them, but I’m a minor spirit. I only just got enough power to make a form. I just, sorta, made it in the castle and got arrested?” Rin laughed a touch nervously. “Nico said that was stupid.”

Eli didn’t believe in magic or spirits, but denial wasn’t going to win her any points with her new, apparently otherworldly friend, so she just jumped on the easiest thing to question. “A spirit?”

Rin nodded aptly. “I’m a lot younger than most! Like I said, I only just got the energy to manifest about five years ago. I’m not even done yet!” Eli cocked her head at that, not sure what she meant, and Rin undid the clip on her cloak and let it fall away, revealing the ‘unfinished’ parts of her manifestation.

Her hands were both in place, but the left arm was gone, leaving the appendage seemingly floating, attached only by a red-grey cloud of something that swirled ominously in place. A piece of her lower abdomen was missing in much the same way. Eli narrowed her eyes at the spaces.

Rin snorted and tossed a rock through her stomach hole. “I kinda don’t want to fix that one.” Rin admitted in a conversational tone. “I can touch my food through it.” Something sagged out of the solid skin, brownish goop that slipped past one of Rin’s fingers and melted back into the bottom half.

Eli made a face and stopped staring at the abdomen hole. “Are you a good spirit?” She settled on asking.

“Are you a good person?” Rin sniped back, so astutely it made Eli snap back into her best posture to avoid a shudder.

“Touché.” Eli replied, crossing her arms. “Spirit or no, my offer stands. Do you want me to escort you?” Not that she needed it, if the all-consuming fire spells were any indicator.

Rin shook her head in a staunch ‘no’ and crossed her arms, trying to mimick Eli’s pose. “Human or no, _my_ offer still stands.” She broke character, leaning forward into Eli and rocking back and forth on her feet, holding onto her arm for balance. “I can take you to meet my sisters! They’ll like you a lot for saving me!”

“I doubt it’s in good form to refuse.” Eli ventured cautiously. Rin nodded. Seeing little choice in the matter, Eli nodded. Rin picked up her cloak and made a swirling motion with the fabric, a flourish before she clipped it back on.

A column of lightning appeared before them, splitting a tree in half with it’s force. The ground was charred. Rin stuck a hand out. “It won’t hurt you!”

“I’m not so sure of that,” Eli replied wearily, and took Rin’s hand anyways. She pulled her through and they emerged on the other side of whatever-it-was out of a column of fire. They looked to be underground, or in a cave of some sort.

A girl with the same shade of hair as Rin bounced around eagerly. “Wow, you did it, Rin! This is the first time you haven’t messed up that spell!”

Rin laughed nervously. “Eheh, yeah, I’m glad, too. It would’ve sucked to teleport back into the void.”

Oh my god. Rin almost got her sent to the void. Eli didn’t even know what that was and it still made her annoyed.

Eli took a deep breath and tried not to lose her composure. Rin remembered she was there and proudly roped an arm around her. “This is Eli and she broke me out and she’s really nice too!”

The other redhead stuck a hand out and smiled, a fanged grin. “Honoka, at your service! Nico wants to see both of you, so we’ll have to catch up later.”

She’d heard Rin mention a Nico, too. “Where is she, anyway?”

Honoka smiled and cheerfully pointed Eli and Rin down the darkest, most intimidating cave hall Eli had ever seen in her life. Not that she’d seen many, but still. She really didn’t like the way the crags dripped inky black slime or the way she couldn’t make out any sources of light. At least in the cavern she was in now, there was the fire to keep it visible.

Of course, Rin cheerfully took her hand and led her in, humming all the while.

Eli almost missed the dungeon.


End file.
